“Ahh!” Percy broke their kiss and flung chunks of potato across the tablecloth, his stomach rolling in revulsion.
Danny’s giggles gave way to a most unladylike—and supremely enticing—snort.
He smiled despite the need to amputate his hand.
“I’m never crossing you again.” Not when he had a horrible suspicion if the classic potato dishes didn’t suffice, she’d have concocted her own.
The sideboard strained under the weight of thirteen varieties of potato preparation, a veritable line of fodder for the bin. Not even his aversion to wasting food could make the awful setting appetizing.
He sighed. “Perhaps the pigs are hungry.”
“No need for that.”
Percy raised a brow in question when he heard voices in the hall.
The doors to the dining hall opened and two sets of ducal couples stepped inside.
Fussing with the skirts of her blush dress, the Duchess of Lux said, “Apologies for our tardiness.” She shot a dirty look at theman standing next to her. “Someonedecided it was a good idea to cram four normal-sized people into a dollhouse coach.”
The Duke of Camine smirked at his sister.
The Duchess of Camine, on her husband’s arm, looked radiant in fitted trousers and an open golden jacket over a red blouse that offered a full view of her increasing belly. “I found it quite cozy.”
Camille rolled her eyes at her sister-in-law. “Pregnancy has addled your brain.”
Danny smiled at the group. “You’re right on time, actually.” She inclined her head towards the dishes. “Help yourself. There’s no use standing on ceremony.”
The Duke of Lux grew animated at the back of the group, his coattails flapping behind him in his haste to fill a plate. “Don’t mind if I do.”
Percy could’ve kissed his wife’s feet when a footman brought out a separate dish of roasted lamb and mixed greens, not a chip in sight.
When they’d all filled their plates and taken their seats, Danny lifted her glass.
“To friends.”
“Bah,” the Duchess of Camine said, lifting her own glass of water. “To family.”
“To family!”
Toasted harmony settled over the group in a beautiful cacophony of clinking crystal, and Percy gazed at the faces of his friends, an alarming sensation of gratitude leaving his chest tight.
Family.
Reformed dukes and revolutionary duchesses: What a bunch of misfits made up theirs.His.
Percy laced his fingers with Danny’s under the table, unable to keep the emotion from his voice for the woman who’d given him everything. “I don’t deserve you.”
Her fingers tightened as if she were preparing to argue.
“But,” he said, raising their hands and kissing each of her fingertips until they relaxed, “I’m honored to have the rest of my life to prove I’m worth the trouble.”
Her eyes were glassy when her gaze lifted to his.
“I love you,” she said.
“And I love you.”
She offered a smile worth every bite of putrid potato in the room and glanced at their friends and family across the table. Gaze straying to Charlotte, she squeezed his hand and said quietly, “I’ll be right back.”
